Judicial precedent

Abstract

We speak of judicial precedent when a decision of a tribunal is an obligatory authority required for the same court and others of equal or lower rank. The doctrine of precedent, arose in the common law legal system, is currently outstanding in all legal systems given the importance of judicial decisions, not only in its own field (the application of law) but to the extent that it has relevance as a formal source of law. Analysis of judicial precedent has special complexity since the following dimensions are involved: the objective dimension related to what is effective of precedent, and that leads us to distinguish between ratio decidendi and obiter dicta; the structural dimension concerning to which decisions constitute precedents with regard to a further decision; the institutional dimension related to the organization of courts and the relations of authority between them, that lead us to distinguish between horizontal precedent, vertical precedent and auto precedent, and, finally, the dimension of effectiveness that lead us to distinguish between mandatory and persuasive precedents.